Payday 2 Dev Explains Why Microtransactions are Here to Stay

As you are no doubt aware, OVERKILL has recently slithered back into the spotlight as a recent update to their two-year-old game, Payday 2, has recently been given a most unwanted update--in the recent Black Market patch, locked safes were introduced--consumables which held stat-boosting and cosmetic weapon skins that could only be opened with drills, which at first could only be purchased with real money, but then could be found in a special post-game random loot drop.

People are pissed, and have been pissed for a while--not only because a formerly ‘free’ game was now introducing microtransactions, but also because this runs directly counter to what Overkill had promised back when the game first launched, that the game would be free of Microtransactions forever.

Well, to mark the end of Crimefest, the big event that started this hubbub, game producer Almir Listo decided to celebrate by hosting a Reddit AMA, which… just about went as well as you might expect. While a lot of questions were asked, the biggest was simply, "What’s the deal with microtransactions?"

And for perhaps the first time, we’ve finally got a straight answer--they’re here to stay, people.
 

“Two and a half years ago, during development of PAYDAY 2 and in the build-up for its release, myself and then Game Director David Goldfarb said that there would be no microtransactions in PAYDAY 2… To make sure there was no confusion, we said what we did to make things absolutely clear. If you asked me then, there would be no way we would've added a system like we just did.

We understand that there is a lot of fury, anger and disappointment with us adding this. From an economical standpoint however, completely based on statistics, we can already see that the Black Market update is working as we intended. Going forward, we hope we can convince the parts of the community that resist this change that this was the right decision to do to ensure the stability of OVERKILL as an independent developer and the future growth of PAYDAY 2.”

 
It’s not what we wanted to hear, but at least they’re being straight with us for once. Microtransactions are the future of Payday 2 from here on out. But at the very least, Almir made an effort to justify why they exist, and why the stat-boosting cosmetic skins are okay:
 

“The game is balanced around the vanilla experience, that is, the game without any DLC. When we add any new difficulties, enemies, features, heists or otherwise, we balance this in relation to the base game. - PAYDAY 2 is a player-versus-environment game. You and your three friends play together against the AI; you lose together and you win together. Any advantage your friends have will only benefit the success of the group. - Making sure that the boosts are balanced in such a way that it doesn't impair on the player's experience. This is an ongoing effort on our side.”

 
I’ll grant you this much--’pay to win’ is certainly more palatable when you’re in a strictly cooperative environment. Still, I’m sure most people would have preferred no microtransactions to this--especially looking at the comments that follow. Overkill has shown it’s willing to negotiate, since it did eventually make drills free, but… how much they’re willing to give in this situation? I guess it depends how long players stick to their non-enhanced guns.